The Acorn People

Ron Jones is a teacher, pedagogist, and writer from California, best known for his anti-fascist and anti-war sentiments and his work with people with disabilities. In the 1960s, while working as a teacher in Palo Alto, California, he created a project called “The Wave,” which taught students about how fascism operates and infiltrates daily life. A week-long project with a salute, slogan, and secret police force, it received complaints from parents. However, it was meant to show how Germans could have accepted Nazi Germany’s actions. He later penned a book about the project titled The Third Wave. The book inspired two documentaries and appeared in several other pieces of media in the US and Germany. In addition, Todd Strasser novelized the experiment in the 1981 book The Wave.

Ron’s other works include B-Ball: The Team That Never Lost a Game, The Acorn People, Say Ray, Kids Called Crazy, and No Substitute for Madness: A Teacher, His Kids, and the Lessons of Real Life. The first two titles were both turned into TV drama films and were nominated for Emmys, Golden Globes, and Peabody Awards.

After the experience recounted in the memoir The Acorn People, Ron taught theater and sports to children with disabilities.